How to get 3G connection in Brazil
During my recent trip to Brazil, I wanted to test the possibilities around a nomadic lifestyle, where one doesn’t necessarily have to give up the benefits of an outdoor’s life, while working tightly with team members in office spaces. Naive wishes? Yes, quite so. Nevertheless, anyone who has the travel bug will identify with what I am talking about.
The bottomline is - Brazil has incredible 3G (and if not, GPRS) reach, being a highly mobile culture. One of the first cultural nuances that one notices as a traveler, is the amount of time Brazilians spend on their phones. Many have several phones, each with a different SIM card (acquired due to an attractive pricing plan, of course). Competition between operators is high, with many of them in the market - TIM, Claro, Oi - the links to them below:
http://www.compre3g.com.br/ (Provider: Claro)
http://www.vivoempresa.com/vivo-internet-3g.asp?gclid=CP7d163uu6QCFQPt7QodxgKVzQ (Provider: VIVO)
http://www.tim.com.br/ (Provider: TIM)
http://oisp.oi.com.br/portal/oipravoce/oiVelox_Velox3G.html (Provider: Oi)
Now, if you are able to speak Portuguese (or able to find someone who can), then all you have to do is to head down to one of the malls in Sao Paulo or Rio or any other big city, and ask them for a data connection. Here’s the catch though - their policies require them to do a yearly contract if a USB modem is packaged along with the SIM. That comes out to be around R$800 (approximately GBP 275). Now, if you are in Brazil for a year, that might make sense.
However, what if I am just travelling for a couple of months or so?
The workaround is simple - either buy a modem stick separately from somewhere, OR just carry a 3G phone (which allows you to change the SIM).
The catch is to then ask simply for a pre-paid SIM card (I would recommend TIM for this), enabled with 3G, top it up, and use the phone or the stick as the modem. This worked superbly well for me with Nokia PC Suite, bluetooth modem, and Nokia Xpressmusic 5800. Or, for less than a month, get a data card from CLARO, and then cancel it before leaving. This would cost not more than R$ 5 for the SIM, and then whatever you top it up with.
I had a TIM pre-paid sim, and a CLARO data card, and both worked without problems even from remote places like Lencois (near Parque De Chapada Diamantinas), or, even while on buses (although, the network either switches to GPRS or none sometimes). With the cheap ACER AspireONE always with me (7-8 hours battery life), I even managed to get some work done during the trip.
Bon voyage!
The Caiman (Pantanal, Brazil).
Although I had to work with the Lumix GH2, the 18X optical zoom is worth having in a trip focussed around wild life. Just wish they had a *much* faster focus on that camera.
The gorgeous Rio from atop Pão de Açúcar. Of course, like an idiot, I left my DSLR at a friend’s house in Sao Paolo - so now stuck with a Panasonic Lumix GH2, helped with some color correction on a cloudy day.
